This is Bird Note.

Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

A native of Chile who wrote in Spanish,

much of his work has been translated into English.

Known best for poems of love, he also celebrated nature. His ode to the hummingbird

brilliantly captures the bird. The poem begins, The hummingbird in flight is a water spark,

an incandescent drop of American fire, the jungle's flaming resume, a heavenly precise rainbow.

The hummingbird is an arc, a golden thread, a green bonfire.

Birds were close to Neruda's heart, and his metaphors draw us into the beauty of nature.

He composed more than 20 poetic profiles of Chilean birds, including the Andean Condor, Blacknecked Swan,

Rufus-collared sparrow, and Magellanic Penguin.

One of these poems spoke of how the wandering albatross skims the waves with its great

symphonic wings, leaving above the tempest a book that flies on forever, the statue of the wind.

Neruda's poetry, too, might be read as a book that flies on forever.

For Poetry Month, you can find more poems about birds on our website,

birdnote.org.

I'm Michael Stein.